Tyson D Sawyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Tyson D Sawyer wrote: > > > It would seem that using a standardized ELF kernel loading mechanism doesn't > > have to be incompatible with a cpio archive for populating an initramfs. Load > > > the ELF kernel, load the cpio image, pass the kernel any needed args and jump > > to it. This doesn't seem radically different from the kernel finding other > > resources while initializing. The cpio archive is just an other resource in > > the system that the kernel uses. > > > I guess that with this plan we loose the idea that a kernel is _just_ and ELF > image like any other. ...but don't we loose that if we are pruning ELF images > also?
Not quite. The difference is that we get a clean fallback. I can load an image like that on a stupid ELF loader, and it loads everything. While a nicer loader can prune the image, so I can run a general purpose kernel an a very small memory machine. The core ELF stuff provides for passing absolutely nothing to the loaded ELF image. Everything like command lines is an optional feature, that a stupid loader can choose not to implement. And for the most part the fallback happens cleanly. Eric
